


Uncles

by phyrestorm



Category: Starfighter (Comic)
Genre: Autism Spectrum, Badass Prosthetics, Bigotry, Cute, Earthlings are dicks, Emotional Healing, Encke Has His Shit Together, F/M, Family, Fluff, Funny, Future Fic, Happy, Keeler Doesn't Die, Kids, Kids Being Awesome, Kids Being Brats, Kids and Adults Playing, M/M, Military Friends, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Praxis Will Always Be A Huge Dork, Racism, Snow, Snowball Fight, Swearing is the only PG13 element here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 02:52:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9472286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phyrestorm/pseuds/phyrestorm
Summary: What if Keeler really WAS straight?Yet another possible continuation ofThe Praxic Viewthat will never happen.  As usual, you don't have to read that for this to make sense.





	1. Chapter 1

We visit Keeler and his family for the first time two days after Stavros gets his new eye.

Took fucking long enough. For the VA to get their shit together and take care of all the former Navigators so they could even start on the Fighters, and for my old Nav to quit being a dick and invite us over. 

It's not that Keeler is a bigot. He doesn't give a crap that I'm Colonial. Or pansexual, for that matter, at least since I got over having a thing for him. He just really doesn't like Stavros and I've never been able to get either of them to explain why. 

We're both out of place as soon as we set foot on Earth. Two big dark guys in a sea of pretty little blonds. Stavros is almost as pale as them, but he's even taller than me and his thick black hair is down past his shoulders now. And of course there's the eye patch. He still wears it because his new eye looks kind of freaky and can see through it anyway.

It's not fun wading through the stares, the scared looks, curious looks, disgusted looks, occasional catcalls. 

It's not fun finally getting a taxi after half a dozen pass us by. Having the driver tell us right off that he isn't prejudiced against Colonials. He even dated a woman from Mars 2 once. He had her take the bastard back where she came from when she got knocked up, though. Wouldn't call one of THOSE people his son.

But thanks for your service, boys.

I've gotten somewhat used to this shit, but Stavros is giving him the full-on death glare. Since there's a small but non-trivial chance he could accidentally do actual damage with that now, I try to distract them both by talking about local tourist traps.

Fortunately, it's a short ride.

After ten minutes or so, we get out into the snow in front of a little building that's at least ten meters away from the other little buildings around it. With trees and grass and stuff in between. None of them more than a few stories and only one family lives in each. Rich Earth fucks call them "houses."

I'm halfway to the front door before I realize Stavros isn't with me. He's scooped up a handful of snow and is staring at it, transfixed. 

I leave my suitcase where it is and go back to put an arm around him.

"Baby?"

"I can see the crystals," he says. "Old Earth books talk about how snowflakes are these amazing shapes and every one is different. It's... They're not like this on Europa. I...thought it was a myth."

"So did I until the first time I came here," I tell him, and pull him in for a kiss to distract him again before he can transfer his anger at the idiot cabbie into being upset about how things suck where he comes from. He's so calm and controlled most of the time, but when he does get emotional, there's likely to be an explosion. 

That's when I hear multiple sets of rapid, crunching steps through the snow and look up just in time to see a six-year-old version of Keeler, except with two braids instead of one, charge up and throw her arms around my waist.

"UNCLE ENNNNNNCKE!" she shouts at the top of her lungs.

"Neviaaaa!" I reply as I pick her up, spin her around, hug her, and rest her on my hip.

A little boy of about four is hot on her heels. When he's about two meters away, he stops so fast he falls down in the snow, looks up at me with blue eyes round and bright as the sun, and yells, "Are you BLACK?! I NEVER SAW A BLACK PEOPLE BEFORE!"

Well at least now someone is saying what everyone in the spaceport was thinking. Would it have killed you to prepare them, Keeler?

Before I have time to get too annoyed, the boy jumps to his feet and hollers, "That's SO COOL!"

Then he grabs my hand with both of his and starts tugging me toward the house. 

A toddler catches up with the others, grabs my leg, bites me in the knee, and says, "Eeee!"

I glance back at Stavros. He looks like he doesn't know whether to laugh or bolt.

The kids notice him at the same time.

"HI! Who are YOU?!"

"Are you Uncle Encke's boyfriend?"

"What's that on your face?"

"Eeee?"

"Is your hair REALLY that color?"

"Are you a PIRATE?!"

He bursts out laughing. That still happens so rarely and makes me smile every time.

Nevia squirms out of my arms. I set her down and she runs up to Stavros.

"Well? ARE you a pirate?!"

He squats to her level and says, quietly, "Yes, I am. But shh! Don't tell anyone." 

Nevia goggles at him for a second, then squats too and puts a hand over her eye like she's trying it out.

Then she whispers solemnly, "Cooool."

They both stand up just as Keeler appears in the doorway, smiling as usual but looking flustered.

"Girls! Phillip! Manners! Oh, dear. I'm sorry, Jaime. Stavros. Please, come in, come in!"


	2. Chapter 2

Keeler takes us through an entry room, a living room two stories tall, a hallway, then finally offers us seats in a kitchen that's bigger than the bedroom I used to share with two other fresh Second Lieutenants. I've seen big Earth houses before, but I have to elbow Stavros in the ribs to make him stop gawking like a doofus.

Keeler's wife, Seera, bustles in and introduces herself, shaking our hands briskly before rushing over to the oven, opening it, and moving something around inside. Apart from her curvy figure, she looks a hell of a lot like Keeler, right down to the smile and the hairstyle, and they're within an inch of each other in height. 

I'm not racist. Some of my best friends are Earthers. It's just kind of hard to tell them apart sometimes.

She lets the oven bang shut, politely nudges me out of the way to get to the sink, and washes her hands. Then she shoos us back into the living room and gestures Stavros and me toward a sofa bigger than our bed.

"Dinner in 20 minutes, boys! Ah, Phillip! Come help Maman wash vegetables!"

She collars the boy and bustles back to the kitchen with him.

Stavros laughs again. I think it's at Seera, and apparently so does Keeler, because anger flashes across his face. Then we hear "Eeee!" and look down around Stavros's legs. The toddler is back and is chewing on his shin and giggling.

"Curie!" says Keeler with an embarrassed smile. "Sweetie, that is not how we greet people!"

"It's OK," says Stavros. 

He leans down, puts his hands around her waist and asks, "May I?"

Keeler mutters something and then says, "I guess."

Stavros shoots him a look, then returns his attention to the little girl who is now perching on one of his feet. 

"Curie, may I pick you up?"

"Eeee!"

He lifts her into his lap. 

She stands up, braces herself on his chest, and immediately makes a grab for his eye patch.

"Eeee?"

"CURIE!" Keeler barks as he stands up to grab her. "Stavros, I'm sorry, she's not...I mean, she doesn't..."

"Give them a chance," I tell him quietly.

Stavros gently catches her hand and pulls it away.

"No. That's private."

"Eeee?"

She tries again.

"No, Curie. I don't like having people see that. That's why it's covered up."

For a moment, I think she's going to cry. Then she says "Eh," sits down, and flops over on his lap like a cat. Stavros hesitates for a moment, then gently strokes her head and back.

Keeler looks irritated, surprised, confused, then breaks into a delighted grin. He gets up from his chair, holds a finger to his lips, tiptoes out, and comes back with Seera, who squeaks and puts a hand over her own smile.

Confused and starting to look defensive, eye darting between the three of us, Stavros asks, "What..."

"...the hell is going on?" I quietly finish for him.

Keeler tries to motion us all out of the room, but Seera gets right to the point.

"Curie is autistic. She doesn't talk yet and she almost never lets a stranger touch her."

Ah. One of the prices of breeding for high intelligence. Autistic people are often very smart, but can't get with the program socially. Having one in the family tends to make things awkward. On the other hand, many of the greatest scientists, inventors, writers, artists, and other brainy types in history have been mildly to moderately autistic.

Keeler's smile is clearly strained as he looks at his wife. She responds with a glare.

"Oh, really, Paul! It's nothing to be ashamed of! My brother was just like her at that age!"

She beams at Stavros. "That girl has NEVER taken to a stranger like that before! Are you on the spectrum too?"

"I...sorry, the what?"

"The autism spectrum, dear! It ranges from neurotypical folks like me to people who don't even speak."

Stavros and I look at each other. Now who does that sound like?

Seera catches it and guesses what we're thinking. 

"I mean people who CAN'T speak! Not Misha. He just doesn't like to. Of course he's obviously on the spectrum somewhere, but--OW! PHILLIP! We do not BITE!"

Phillip removes his teeth from his mom's arm, pouts, and points at Curie.

"SHE does!"

"Curie is a baby, Phillip," says Seera sternly. "Are you a baby?"

He scowls and shakes his head as Nevia skips in, chanting, "Baby! Baby! Bitey bitey baby!"

Phillip bursts into tears. "I am nooot!"

"Eeee!?"

"Baby, baby, Phillip is a baby!"

"Waaaahhh!!"

"QUIET!"

We all immediately freeze and our gazes snap to Keeler, who is standing with his hands on his hips, glowering, and looking a foot taller than he did a minute ago.

"Nevia. Do not call your brother a baby. Phillip, do not bite people. Now both of you go help your mother with dinner."

Nevia makes a show of ignoring her father, tosses her hair, and skips out of the room. Seera takes Phillip by the hand and leads him out, sniffling. Seconds later, we hear Nevia loudly proclaiming that she has decided to help with dinner.

Keeler sits back down and rolls his eyes. "I swear supervising a ship full of Navigators was easier."

I snort. "Try a ship full of Fighters and then we'll talk."

"Tch. You didn't have Phobos."

"You didn't have Cain!" Stavros and I reply at the same time.

Keeler laughs.

"OK, you win."

Stavros finally relaxes again and smiles. "Remember the time he and Deimos broke into Jackson's still and set their suits on fire?"

"Ha, yeah!" I laugh. "What about when he spraypainted dirty words and dick drawings all over the Tiberius?"

Stavros stops smiling and looks uncomfortable.

Keeler snickers. "Phobos gave half of the Navs crabs...what?"

We both look at Stavros, who looks really guilty.

"Um...Cain didn't...uh..."

I chuckle and reach my arm around his broad shoulders.

"Baby, it's OK! I suspected long ago. Hell, I'd have framed the jerk for something in your place--"

"No," he interrupts, "it wasn't me either. And, uh. Cain wasn't...the one who was supposed to..."

"Wait," says Keeler. "Wasn't that the day after Phobos "accidentally" dumped his coffee all over Ethos's work station?"

Stavros nods and grins. "And I always thought the little shit was so NICE! Took me forever to realize he did tha--hey!"

Little Curie is still in his lap, and apparently he's being too loud for her taste. She swats at him, then pulls herself to her feet again and puts a tiny hand over his mouth. He chuckles, darts a nervous glance at Keeler, and gently moves Curie's hand away again.

"Listen, you--," he starts, still grinning and pointing a finger in her face.

She strikes like a chubby, adorable, blonde cobra.

Stavros yelps, yanks his finger out of her mouth, and stares at her for a dumbfounded instant. 

She grabs a handful of his hair, stuffs it in her mouth, and giggles.

This could go either of two ways. I get ready to grab the kid if Stavros freaks out, but he's already laughing harder than I've ever seen him do. Curie looks alarmed for a moment, then plumps down on her rear and starts flailing around with her tiny fists, screaming, "HEEEE! HEEE HEEEEE HEEEEEEEEE!!!""

Seera returns to the room then, takes one look at her youngest daughter and my boyfriend laughing their asses off, and actually does a happy little jump and claps her hands.

"Oh, Curie! Honey, have you made a friend?"

Stavros is still laughing too hard to answer, so I salute and deadpan in my best Serious Officer Voice, "Yes, ma'am. Friendly relations have been established, ma'am."

Nevia reappears, pushes through the doorway past her mother's ample hips, and announces, "You are all crazy. Dinner is ready. Come on."


	3. Chapter 3

I survey the field of combat from my guarded position. No enemies in sight. Wait, what's that? Someone's moving through the trees over there. But is it an ally or--

WHAP!

A snowball hits me square in the back.

"GOTCHA! You're dead, Uncle Encke!" Nevia shouts from behind me.

Dammit.

I start my watch and lie down in the snow for my one minute dead. A mohawk really isn't the most comfortable style for this. If I'd known we were going to play snow war, I'd have worn a hat.

"You want me to stay dead or join your team?" I ask Nevia.

"Join! Maman stayed dead and Daddy's got Phillip AND Uncle Pirate!"

"So it's just you and me on this team?"

"Yeah," she replies, "and I'm the boss, so don't fuck it up!"

My watch beeps.

"We're having a talk with your parents about your manners later," I tell her as I sit up. "For right now, I think I saw your dad near the edge of the woods. What shall we do, boss?"

She grins. "Sneak up and get him!"

"Good idea," I say, "but I'm not very good at sneaking. What if we split up, I make a bunch of noise to distract him, and you sneak around the house and get him from the other side?"

She thinks about it for a moment. "OK, you go first, then I'll sneak."

"Roger that. Let me just reload."

We both stuff our pockets with snowballs. Then I dash from behind the drift I was using as cover, sprint ten meters, and duck behind Keeler's car. Glancing back at Nevia, I see she's taken off her snowsuit. What the hell? Then she puts it back on, inside-out, hiding the pink exterior and exposing the white lining.

Most of the recruits I've trained wouldn't have thought of that at 18 or 20, let alone six.

Smiling in approval, I break cover again and make a run for the woods.

I've almost made it when I hear another set of running footsteps behind me. I leap to the side just as a snowball zips past my ear. Another one hits a tree just ahead of me. I dive behind it, roll to my feet, and return fire in a single motion.

I know it's Stavros before I even turn around, because I could hear him gaining and he's one of the few people who can outrun me. I meant to aim for his chest, but the snowball sticks to my glove for a split second and flies right at his face. He starts to duck, but it's too late.

I instantly cringe for him. Even after almost four years, he's still got a very understandable terror of getting hit in the face.

I see a red flash and the snowball bursts into water droplets and mist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do believe someone wanted to know more about what Praxis's new eye could do.


	4. Chapter 4

"OW!" Stavros yells, yanking his eye patch off. "Son of a BITCH!"

He turns away, clutching his face. 

I'm at his side in a moment.

"Baby, I'm sorry! Are you OK? I'm so sorry! It stuck to my glove! Do you need help?"

"I'm fine," he winces through a series of metallic clicking sounds. Then there's a soft hiss and he relaxes. The hand he removes from his face is holding something shaped like a pistol bullet, but larger and blunter.

"My own fault. I was watching you guys with infrared and forgot to shut it off. I didn't even mean to trigger the laser."

More crunching steps through the snow.

"Is someone hurt? What's going on?" Keeler calls as he jogs up to us.

"Sorry. It's nothing. My eye overheated."

"Your...what?! OH! You must have the Voorhees prototype! My cousin worked on that. May I see?"

"Beta version 2, actually. You can see when we're inside. I don't want anything to get--"

WHAP!

A snowball hits Keeler in the back of the head.

"Gotcha, Daddy! You're dead!" Nevia crows as she trots up to us.

Then she gets a look at Stavros and screams.

I guess it would be scary if you weren't expecting it. The lid and some surrounding tissue have been removed. With the eye out, the socket is a gaping hole lined with metal.

Stavros quickly reinserts the prosthetic and replaces the patch, which now has a small hole in the middle. Keeler kneels in front of his daughter and holds her by the shoulders as he tries to reassure her. 

"It's OK! It just looks scary! He won't hurt you!"

Nevia looks at her father like he's the biggest idiot ever.

"HE'S hurt! Not ME!" she yells, pointing behind her at Stavros. "His EYE fell out! GO CALL A HOSPITAL!"

To his credit, Keeler manages to restrain his laughter.

"Honey, that was a long time ago. He's fine now. He--"

Nevia calls over her shoulder, "Uncle Pirate, do you need a hospital!?"

I start laughing, then stop when I see Stavros's expression.

He sits down in the snow next to Keeler and reaches his hands out to Nevia, palms up. She immediately takes them.

"No, sweetheart, I'm fine. But thank you for asking. That...that means a lot."

Of course. This child he's known for a few hours just showed more concern for him in thirty seconds than the Alliance ever has. I tried to help him in the weeks and months after he lost his eye and the Navigator he loved, but I could have done much more, and there was no official support at all.

SPLAT!

A snowball lands on Nevia's head.

We all jump and look around.

SPLOT!

Stavros gets one too, right down the back of his collar.

Where is this coming from?!

I look up just in time to see Phillip three meters up in a tree, grinning triumphantly, before his last snowball nails me in the forehead.

"Gotcha!" he announces. "I win!"


End file.
